Photos of Goseong - the DMZ, Gangwon Province, Korea

Goseong, north of the town of Sokcho in Gangwon-do (Gangwon Province), is the furthest north you can go to in South Korea. It is well north of the 38th parallel, which had divided Korea after the Second World War, and was part of North Korea until the 1953 Armistice, which brought the Korean War to a close.

Following the coastal road north, the beach of Daejin, about 10 kilometres from the border, is a no-go zone, closed off with barbed wire. At a control post, Tongil Security, 500 metres on, you can obtain a pass to proceed to the Goseong Unification Observatory and the museum at the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone), but only to people in a car.

The Goseong Unification Observatory gives a good view across the DMZ into North Korea, and a large map indicates where the military installations are. Liquor and banknotes, bearing their “Eternal President” Kim Il-sung’s visage, are North Korean souvenirs for sale. The excellent DMZ Museum displays, among others, North Korean propaganda posters, a wooden boat that brought a North Korean family to freedom and planes that were used during the Korean War.